I Reject!
by Scribbles-kun
Summary: Keigo has a rare moment of inadvertent correctness. IchiHime.


**Warnings:** _language_

**Disclaimer: **_Bleach belongs to Kubo Tite._

* * *

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"Hey, Chad..."

"Hm?"

"Know anything about how to ask a girl out?"

Chad looked over at his friend. They were leaning up against the side of a tunnel beneath a bridge with a few unconscious thugs scattered at their feet, guarding them until the cops got there. Ichigo had stuffed his hands into his pockets and his shoulders were scrunched up near his ears. Said ears were quite red, Chad observed.

"You're going to ask someone out?"

Ichigo kicked at the ground and grunted. "I dunno, maybe..."

"Who?" Even though he asked, he had a pretty good idea as to the answer. They were not best friends for nothing.

He scratched at the back of his head in a violent spurt. "Don't laugh," he warned.

Chad grunted.

"I..." Ichigo blew out a breath and glared at the opposite side of the tunnel. "Inoue."

Suddenly an overly energetic head topped with unruly brown hair popped into view at one end of the tunnel. A finger pointed dramatically. "What?! Inoue Orihime? Dude, you got some _balls_."

Ichigo jumped and stared agape as Keigo stepped closer. Mizuiro followed, looking bored as he fiddled with his phone.

"Asano-san," Mizuiro began with a tired voice, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Where have you _been_?"

"What the _hell_?! Where did you guys come from?"

Keigo stopped mid-stride in a moment of rare foresight when his eyes spotted Ichigo's right fist pulling back into position. "We go this way every day from school." He gave Ichigo a hurt expression complete with a quivering bottom lip. "You don't even know how to get to our houses, do you?"

"That's beside the point!" Ichigo shouted. A thug near his foot had the misfortune of choosing that moment to slowly come to consciousness with a low groan. Ichigo took out his temper on the guy with a kick to the head. "Why are you eavesdropping on a private conversation?!"

Keigo crossed his arms. "You're not exactly quiet, Ichigo, and it echoes all over the place in here. We happened to hear as we passed. Besides!" He looked mournful again. "Aren't we your bosom friends too? Why can't you confide in us, _Ichigo_?" he whined.

Ichigo fell back to leaning against the concrete wall. "Tch," was all he could think of to say.

"But duuude," Keigo continued. "Inoue Orihime, the prettiest girl at our high school? Balls of lead, man. Balls of lead."

"Would you stop talking about my balls?"

"I'm just saying..." Keigo waved his hand flippantly in the air. "When you aim, you aim high." His eyes suddenly lit up. "Hey, can we be there when you ask her out?"

"What?!"

"No, really. I wanna see it. She's probably gonna..." He snorted and then clamped a hand over his nose and mouth, chuckling. "..._reject_ you." Keigo nearly doubled over in a fit of giggles. "Get it?" he wheezed. "_Reject_ you?"

Chad looked at the lowered head, orange tendrils hanging over Ichigo's eyes, and eyed the clenched fists with concern. After all these years, Keigo still had little to no sense of self-preservation.

Mizuiro rolled his eyes. "Yes, we get it, Keigo."

Keigo wiped at his tears, but apparently he was not done. He clasped his hands in front of him, wiggled his body girlishly, and raised his voice several octaves. "Kurosaki-kun wants to go out with me?" He donned a horrified expression before holding out his hands in a little triangle shape, face now determined, and continuing in the girly tone said loudly, "Santen Kesshun, I _reject_!" He barely got the words out before he burst out laughing, looking as if he was about to start rolling on the floor.

Ichigo's face was inflamed and his voice shook with anger. "Damn you, Keigo..."

There was an amused snort and Ichigo looked over to see Mizuiro fighting a smile. "Wha-"

Chad cleared his throat loudly and pressed his lips together.

"Even you, Chad? I thought you weren't going to laugh!"

Chad coughed a couple more times, but he was still fighting the direction of the corners of his mouth. "I'm not laughing."

Mizuiro was now chuckling out right, his phone covering his mouth. Finally it was too much for Chad and his teeth flashed as a low rumble began in his chest before escaping in a laugh.

"Screw you guys," Ichigo muttered as he toed the same guy near his foot, glaring at the still unconscious lump in annoyance.

Sirens sliced through the laughter right then and the friends deftly made like trees. A few minutes later, Ichigo and Chad finally separated from the other two, Keigo still chuckling and imitating Orihime, seeming to be nearly immune to Ichigo's punches.

Chad gave the top of Ichigo's head a sympathetic look as they walked.

"Is the idea of me... Is it really that funny?"

Chad sighed. "No, it's not. That's not why I was laughing."

"Then why?"

"Because Keigo can be a funny son of a bitch."

Ichigo kicked at a rock in the road.

"You should ask Inoue out."

"But _how_?"

Chad shrugged. "Just ask her, I guess."

They came to the point where they had to separate. Ichigo looked like he had been sucking on a lemon.

"Ichigo." Chad waited until he had his attention. "As your friend, I'm telling you to give it a shot."

Ichigo looked into the dark brown eye that was not covered by hair and suddenly felt hope for some reason. It was almost if Chad _knew_ something. Ichigo nodded and with a wave, headed home, and tried to figure out how the hell he was going to do this.

* * *

After school the next day, Ichigo took a deep breath and offered to walk Orihime home. Orihime looked shocked and flustered and they did a verbal dance before she finally acquiesced. Soon they were walking side by side while having light, nervous conversation.

Ichigo could feel his so-called friends stalking behind them, darting behind bushes and fences. It made him want to forget the whole thing, but he knew they probably would not give up and would eventually be able to successfully spy on his moment of confession. Besides, he had spent all night and all day resolving that he would do this. And Kurosaki Ichigo never backed down from his resolve.

He suddenly stopped. "Inoue."

Orihime whirled around to face him and looked at him with startled eyes. "Kurosaki-kun?"

"I..." Ichigo cleared his throat. "There was, uh, something I wanted to ask you."

She stepped closer, tilting her head to look up at his face. "Is something wrong?"

"N-No, it's just I, uh..." He tugged at the collar of his tee underneath his school shirt, which normally didn't feel tight in the least. "You see, the thing is I... Well, we've been friends for a while, and..." He cursed under his breath before suddenly standing stick straight, clenching his fists at his sides, and scowling fiercely down at her. It was now or never.

Orihime jerked back. "Kuro-"

"Inoue, I-I like you. Would you go out with...uh..." He swallowed nervously as her eyes widened in horror while sliding from his face. "...me?" he squeaked out.

Her hand reached towards the pocket where she kept her pins and everything seemed to slow down as she pulled them out.

"Santen Kesshun..."

Ichigo felt the blood drain out of his face. _No fucking way._

"I reject!"

_Mother of god, Keigo was right._

"Look out, Kurosaki-kun!"

Ichigo struggled to blink out of the stunning blow he had just been dealt by her extreme rejection. Look out? Look out for what? The shattered pieces of his heart and dignity scattered on the ground? He finally noticed that she was frowning over his shoulder with intense purposefulness.

"Koten Zanshun!"

A flash went by his ear and on instinct, he twisted his body to follow its path. His eyes widened when he saw her shield brightly glowing behind him. Beyond that, the tiny offensive fairy cleanly sliced the giant hollow in half from top to bottom. The thing dissipated with a scream as Tsubaki returned to her pin.

Orihime calmly tucked the pins back into her pocket and looked back up at him with a smile. "I'm sorry, Kurosaki-kun, what were you saying?"

"I...uh..."

Snorts were heard in the distance. Orihime raised her eyebrows curiously, looking behind him again. "Does someone own pigs around here? How cute!"

Ichigo silently cursed his, again, _so-called_ friends.

"Ah!" She looked back to him with startled eyes. "Sorry, sorry! I interrupted you again."

"Th-That's okay... Inoue..."

"Kurosaki-kun, are you sure you're all right? You look a little ill. And you didn't even notice that hollow right behind you."

"No, I'm fine. I'm just a little... distracted."

"Oh, right, there was something you wanted to ask me."

He nodded jerkily.

She looked at him with growing concern and reached her hand out to him. "Kurosaki-kun... you don't need to hesitate to ask me anything. I would do anything to help you, you know."

Ichigo stared at her outstretched fingers and on impulse he grabbed them with his own hand, almost squeezing a little too tightly. She squeaked and stared at their hands.

"W-Would you go out with me?"

He watched her eyes grow even bigger and slowly slide up until she was looking into his eyes. A blush stained her cheeks bright red.

"Go out... with you?"

He cleared his throat and nodded once.

"On a d-date?"

"Yeah."

She pointed to herself with her free hand. "With me?"

Ichigo stuck his other hand in his pocket, but felt unable to let go of hers. He dropped his gaze from her shocked face and stared at their hands. They looked good together, his hand and hers. "That's the idea."

"Oh... I see..."

He had shocked her. Totally grossed her out, probably. He was a friend and that was as far as it went. He was prepared for that, but still... "It's fine, Inoue, if you don't. Really. I just wanted to tell you how I feel and give it a shot and stuff..." He should have taken that well-timed hollow and Orihime's "rejection" as a sign and just tossed the whole idea out the window.

But then, as he was looking at their hands, a pretty amazing thing happened. First, her imprisoned fingers curled over his hand. Then, her other hand came up and grasped his hand so that it was completely encased in her warm, gentle hold.

He slowly lifted wide eyes to her face and was again amazed. One of the biggest, brightest smiles he had ever seen was spread across her face. And he had seen a lot of Orihime smiles. A lot of bright ones. He secretly considered himself somewhat of an expert on Orihime smiles. There were happy ones, tired ones, relieved ones, worried ones, goofy ones, strained ones...

"Yes, Kurosaki-kun, I'd love to go out with you."

He stared at that face, all lit up like a firecracker, honey eyes brimming with something that overwhelmed him a little. And yet at the same he wanted to dive right in and discover all the secrets that look held.

"You do? I-I mean, you would?"

She nodded enthusiastically, hair shaking. "The truth is..." The stain on her cheeks spread until in covered her entire face. "I-I like you, too, Kurosaki-kun..."

A floating piece of lint could have knocked him over. _She_ liked _him_? The thought breezed through his mind that the local "pigs" were completely silent.

Orihime laughed nervously. "You beat me to confessing. I guess that means you win!"

Ichigo blinked and felt his mouth lift into a wide smile. He didn't know exactly what she meant, he would ask her later, but "Yeah, I guess I did win." _That_ was true enough. In more ways than one.

She shifted a little, her fingers dancing across the skin of his hand. Was it normal to feel tiny sparks from another person's fingertips, he wondered. "Um..." She bit her lip for a moment. "When did you want to go on... our first date?"

Ichigo opened his mouth, but the words stalled. First date? He was still struggling to comprehend that Orihime not only accepted him, but already returned his feelings.

He was pulled out of his stunned reverie by a light tugging on his hand. She nervously inquired, "H-How about now?"

"Now?"

"Our date..." She glanced away shyly before freeing one of her hands and after a moment's hesitation and an excited glance, she was running, pulling him behind her "No time like the present!" she shouted behind her.

Ichigo quickly found his legs to keep up with her. He looked down at the hand that was tightly holding his and then up at the girl happily running in front of him, her long, caramel hair flowing behind her.

And then a triumphant, slightly evil smirk curled his mouth. Reject _this_, Keigo.

* * *

Keigo stumbled and rolled out of the bushes. He held out a shaking hand towards the running couple. "P-Princess-chan...?"

Chad and Mizuiro easily slipped out of their hiding spot, both looking at the couple with satisfaction, and then down at Keigo in pity. Keigo held out his hands in a little triangle. "I reject!"

Mizuiro sighed at his friend. "Asano-san, did you really have no idea that Inoue-san liked Ichigo?"

Keigo, who was squatting dejectedly on the ground, snapped his head up and stared aghast at his friend. "Whaat?! You knew? But _how_?"

Mizuiro shrugged and pulled out his phone when it vibrated in his pocket. "I thought it was plain as day that Orihime liked him practically since we started high school."

Keigo looked back at his other friend. "Chad? You too?"

Chad grunted. Keigo wailed about punks and princesses and how the two didn't go together and how _he_ was the ladies' man around here, _not_ Ichigo.

A few minutes later, after they had managed to calm Keigo down and start for their homes, Keigo sniffed and stuck his chin in the air with a grin.

"At least I was right about her rejecting him!"

Chad and Mizuiro simultaneously punched him in his sides.

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End file.
